Ancient Chinese Trebuchets Study

The trebuchet is a long distance heavy offensive and defensive weapon in the ancient China. It is a wooden mechanical devices, and use the lever principle to throw stones or gunpowder bombs to hit the enemy soliders or military facilities. During the ChunQiu period , trebuchet was used in the war, and after Qin and Han Dynasties , it became one of conventional weapon in the army , then in the Song and Yuan Dynasties , it developed to the peak .However, as development of the artillery technology in the mid and late period of Ming Dynasty, trebuchet was out of the war fields gradually. In the long development course which lasted more than 2000 years, trebuchet became an important weapon which was indispensable to the land and water battles , and its shape and technology has evolved ,which was from the original single and rough conditions to late various and refining .Trebuchet occupied an important position in Chinese war devices development history . After gunpowder was applied for the war, trebuchet was in charge of throwing it far away. When both of them combined , which not only imported the new factors into development of the trebuchet , but also promoted the progress of gunpowder weapon technology, and enlightened the late artillery invention directly.In the cold weapon times, the fighting advantages of trebuchet were as well as the fighting advantages of artillery which showed in the modern war. The wide use of it changed the war conditions in the ancient war, and promoted the progress of ancient war devices technology. Trebuchet had deep affect on Chinese ancient military history and technology history.